Although The Age of Innocence opens with a performance of Faust at the Academy of Music in New York City in the early 1870s with Nilsson performing the role of Marguerite, it is thought by some that Edith Wharton's impressions actually originated from performances at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1880s (Wharton was still a child in the early 1870s).

Faust is the story of a depressed and ageing scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for youth, pleasure and a beautiful woman. His satanically-enabled pursuit of innocent Marguerite threatens to destroy her.